#farmtocloset

Fibershed by Rebecca Burgess / Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy

I am fortunate to be the Co-chair of the Dye Section of our beautiful herb garden down @westernreserveherbsociety garden at the @clegarden . Working in this garden is a joy and an adventure given that it’s actually the least easily understood of the sections that make up our garden. The most common question? “ Why are you growing a garden full of weeds? “ Dye plants are some of the oldest of the useful plants and like many of the medicinal plants, they ARE “ weeds!” As a result, the dye garden flows in a way that’s more natural and less conformed to the rigidity of a formal garden pattern. It’s almost impossible to tame and that’s because the beauty of these plants isn’t necessarily in the flowers, but instead in the mystery of the roots, leaves and stems, and what happens when you use a bit of alchemy and mordant to pull out the pigments and fix the colors. The yellow flowers you see here are from the Woad plant. The Woad plant doesn’t create a yellow dye...it creates a blue pigment from the leaves, and in fact it yields the face paint that the ancient Celts used to paint their faces blue before battle as well as a beautifully subtle blue dye for yarns and textiles. When it comes to natural plant dyes, the thinking these days is #farmtocloset and all of these easily misunderstood plants are finally getting honored as they should! #plantdye #plantdyes #dyegarden #dyegardening #alchemy #science #woad #woadblue #bethschreibmangehring #asanctuarycalledhome #potagersforasmallplanet (at The Herban Inn) https://www.instagram.com/p/COvMKEiJo_2/?igshid=l2uhran7br2u